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At the Table Live Lecture - Ekaterina

Ekaterina

Murphy's Magic Supplies, Inc.

(Based on 2 reviews)
This AT THE TABLE EXPERIENCE with Ekaterina, will have a little bit of everything for everyone. Ekaterina, who appeared on the SyFy hit show, Wizard Wars, will be giving you an exciting class in cardistry, magic & showmanship. There will be something here for both the complete beginner as well as the more advanced. So break out your cards, and prepare to learn everything from basic flourishes to enhance your magic, to the more advanced and difficult moves to just plain show off.

Ekaterina will also be covering magic for both close-up and stage as she tips one of the effects for the stage that she performed on Wizard Wars. Ekaterina will also perform and explain a few card effects which have never seen print until this event. One of them fooled Penn & Teller! Mix that in with a funny rope-escape routine, and you have yourself an AT THE TABLE EXPERIENCE that cannot be missed!

Reviews

Doc Johnson

Official Reviewer

Aug 19, 2015

PROS

Most lectures have some gems. With some lectures, it is challenging to find something useful. This lecture was full of gems.

In one segment, she took card splitting to a whole-nother-level. Very powerful stuff.

In her ring routine, she taught some good lessons in timing and choreography.

Ekaterina is known for cardistry, and she covered not only cardistry, but combining cardistry with magic. It was a valuable lesson to learn to be flexible and be willing to push the boundaries. Magic is an artform, so if you can perform cardistry, you can incorporate it into your magic and people will appreciate both the magic and your artistic abilities with cards. Some performers think you need to be one thing or another. Her message was people will enjoy the art of what you do.

Ekaterina’s magic is very contemporary.

CONS

Not much downside. She showed a variety of moves, some more challenging than others and some even more challenging to her. She talked about how, when sharing some of the more challenging moves, sometimes, they don’t come across flawless. She demonstrated how to handle that situation.

VERDICT

A great lecture. It covers innovative magic and cardistry.
(Top ▲)

Dr. J. M. Ayala De Cedoz

Official Reviewer

Jun 23, 2015

The bulk of this lecture was spent on a principle that Ekaterina became quite famous for after her appearance on the 'Wizard Wars' TV show in the United States. While she does not teach the exact effect she performed on the TV show, she does teach the principle behind it.

The first 50 minutes of the lecture cover that topic, what to do and what not to do, how to prepare the necessary items and various ideas on how/when/where and for whom to perform the effect. Very strong and very powerful ideas!

The rest of the lecture seemed to be a bit choppy because Ekaterina kept going off camera for bits of time while she left Mike to practice a move that she just demonstrated a moment before.

Other than that, she teaches some basic cardistry moves and sequences, her take on the classic "Biddle Trick" and a very nice little routine with a normal finger ring. The finger ring routine looks very magical and is a great thing to have in your back pocket (actually, on your finger) for impromptu situations. It will take some practice to get it smooth, but it is not incredibly difficult.

The cardistry that you will learn in this lecture is quite basic, though she does not always explain everything in great detail but rather skims over some of the stuff. Most of it should be enough to get you started and she does provide a great deal of video resources on cardistry.

Ekaterina talks about her philosophy as a performer and being a female magician. Even some of her ideas and thoughts on performance character could be applied to and used by male magicians.

Mike Hankins had his hands full with this lecture because he followed along with most of the things she was teaching so he was learning at the same time as the audience, which made for an interesting lecture to say the least.

If you have ever wanted to get started in very basic cardistry, you may find some things on here that will be great to start with. Personally, though my opinion of effect does not effect the star rating, I would recommend this lecture just for the principle you learn at the beginning. There is so very much you can do with it that it is worth the cost.

If you are an experienced XCM or cardistry performer, do not look here for anything to whet your appetite because it is not here.

All in all the lecture was good but it felt like there was something missing, though I cannot exactly pinpoint just what that something is.

3.5 stars.
(Top ▲)